Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I've seen a few threads that touch on this, but most are about a specific system (such as AURA warning a miner if the hold is nearing full, or having AURA warn due to changes in local system population). My idea involves giving us players a much wider range of voice warnings/notifications that the player can configure.

Let's face it - how many times do you get a voice warning from AURA that serves any purpose or tells you something that you don't already know? "Warp Drive Active". "There is already something in that location." Sure, those are handy - but hardly something that really matters when you are in a firefight. Unless you are using auto pilot, the only message you are ever likely to hear from AURA is "Warp Drive Active." Yeah, I know it's active - I turned it on and the GIANT TEXT ON MY HUD is a pretty good reminder that I have turned on my warp engines. I'd trade that voice in a heartbeat for getting voice warnings for events that I did not initiate in the first place. I'll give some examples that in a moment.

Let's fix this and add audio warnings that really matter. From a programming standpoint, I don't see this as being very complicated or something that is going to consume a lot of server resources. Beyond some minor code changes and sitting down someone who can do the AURA voice in a sound booth for a afternoon, this seems like something that most if not all players would welcome and could be done without much work at all! The messages, like the current AURA voice messages would be all stored on the client side, and I highly doubt having the server send a message instructing the client to playback a specific audio warning would have much negative impact on server performance.

I'm talking about AURA giving voice warnings along the lines of:

"Warp drive inoperable" - when pointed
"Hostile target detected" - when a war target or someone marked red comes on grid
"Shields are offline" / "Armor is offline" - when taking damage
"You are under attack" - when the first bit of damage is applied to the player
"Tracking is being disrupted" / "Targeting is being disrupted" / etc - when subject to various forms of ECM
"You are being targeted" - when a target locks onto you
"Target destroyed" - when your active target goes boom
"Squad/Wing/Fleet member requesting (shields/armor/cap)" - when that happens
"Module has been critically damaged" - when you overheat something to the point that it breaks
"Capsule Ejected" - when your egg leaves the bird that went boom


And so on. I'm sure others have a bunch of ideas of actual useful information that could be relayed to the player via a voice message.

Of course, these need to be configurable so they can be turned on or off or fine tuned to the players need / situation / personal preference.

In my opinion, this is a really simple thing to do that not only would give players a much greater awareness of the tactical situation around them - but would also result in a much better game play experience in general. You mean to tell me that the advanced AI system that is part of my ship will give me a audio warning when I try to place a module in a slot that is already full, but no one thought giving that same AI the ability to warn me via voice that I am being pointed/webbed/ECMed or that my shields are down would be a good idea?

And yes, I am aware I can configure a beep for when my ship hits a specific % of shields, armor, or hull - but let's face it - in the heat of battle where most decisions are made in a split second, they are ambigious to say the least. Same with the flashy red effect on the top or bottom of the screen. These are things that need to be relayed from the ships computer to the capsule pilot in a clear, simple, and direct audio message.

Well, what do you guys think? Also, inb4 "Eve has sound?" :) :) :) (CCP: Add something useful to the voice messages like this, and perhaps "Eve has sound?" will become a bit less lulzy and pointed of a remark then it is right now) :) :)

[Edit: Forgot to spell check.]

For sure. In a small fleet, I could see it being really useful - but in a large fleet, it's something that a player would want to configure for their needs. Giving the player the option to restrict a message like that to squad or wing, or perhaps only players that are on the current watchlist - the possibilities are endless.

Would definitely be cool as long, as you can handpick the ones you want or don't want.

Also, make sure there are no voice warnings for events that can happen a lot over a short period of time ... Like in your example, "new hostile on grid", that could become quite awful in larger fights ^^.

Yeah, I could see that - and I could also see how weird things might happen in say, a frigate that is instablapped by some serious firepower. Of course, the idea will need some tweaking and tuning - but allowing the player to configure these events and turn them on or off is a must, as well as some common sense as to when the events are triggered in the first place.

Yup! And this really does not seem like a change that would require much dev team time at all, and that I think most if not all players would get behind.

Imagine, if you will, a universe where the nifty voice warning system in your ship actually.... gives you relevant voice warnings that aid in battlefield awareness? :)

"Stop being creepy, it's only a woman"

YES. I can just picture AURA jumping in on TS3 when a female speaks up in comms and some of the guys have to be "OMG WE HAVE A GIRL IN FLEET."

Aura: "Stand down. Girls fly internet spaceships too."

xD

Technically it's a cartoon bunny...but that really doesn't help with it being any less creepy...

The possibilities are limitless. My original idea would simply be extending and making the default AURA voice something that actually had a purpose - but the concept of adding more "voice packs" like we can get for our GPS systems in the real world opens the door for CCP to use this as a money making tool - which I hope would make implementing this change a lot more appealing to the bean counters at CCP.

And besides - when I show my friends EVE to show them what a darn cool game it is - I think they would be more likely to sign up after witnessing a universe with a awesome AURA voice set - it would really add to the universe and make the whole experience a lot more appealing to a new player, while giving greater battlefield awareness to existing players.

I'd pay $50 right now for a full AURA pirate theme voice pack complete with "Ahoy, matey - warp drive is offline!"

Aura pack for gankers....simply Daleks yelling 'EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!'...for every action possible...